DAUGHTERS WHO PROPHESY:
THE WAY OF PENTECOST

by Dr. Tim Green

The onlookers stood in amazement as long-held boundaries and deeply-entrenched barricades were shattered. By the creative work of God, the Church was birthed at Pentecost. Standing to his feet, Peter announced that the words of the prophet Joel were being fleshed out before their very eyes: “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy’” (Acts 2:16-18, nrsv).

No wonder Peter would link the creative work of God occurring at Pentecost with the activity of the Spirit, for wherever God’s life-giving work had occurred in the past, the Spirit of God was at work. From the chaotic waters of creation to the destructive waters of the flood to the freedom-separating waters at the Red Sea, the mighty rushing wind of God brought new life, hope, and freedom. As it blew over lifeless bones in a valley, this life-resuscitating breath of God animated a vast army.

As the lovingly creative Spirit had descended upon Christ at His baptism, He set out to proclaim good news to the poor, release to the imprisoned, and give sight to the blind. Now as it descended upon the Church, His followers would continue the ministry Christ entrusted to them. As they would soon spill out into the streets of Jerusalem and the towns of Judea, crossing the barriers into Samaria, and finally taking the good news to the heart of the Empire, this Church would dare to imagine what some refused to imagine: long-established barriers of age broken, well-defined boundaries of power and status dissolved, deeply-entrenched barricades of gender annihilated. Such factors would never again serve as grounds to prohibit any human being from declaring, “Thus says the Lord!” The Church born at Pentecost looked boldly into the face of a society that found security through constructing blockades, and it courageously announced: “In Christ, there is no longer Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free” (Galatians 3:28).

The Story Continues

After two millennia, this Church continues to be a people freed from the entrenched barriers that stand in the way of God-called messengers. Regardless of the popular opinion of the day, this Church affirms the God-given call to speak on behalf of God (i.e., to prophesy) regardless of age, rank, or gender.

Across twenty centuries, the Church has faced challenges encouraged by social, cultural, and religious norms that establish limitations based on gender. At times, these norms have so influenced even well-meaning Christians that rationalizations have been provided as to why women should not be permitted to speak on behalf of God. These rationalizations have then been footnoted by scriptural proof texts. However, even when done from sincere hearts, to prohibit one gender from prophetic proclamation is to forsake the Church’s identity as a peculiar people shaped by God. The Church of Jesus Christ is continually called to remember who it is, where it was born, and how it might reclaim the vision of its birth.

Reclaiming the Vision of God’s Intention for Creation

To reclaim this vision, the people of God celebrate the gender-inclusive nature of all humanity as the image of God from the very beginning. The opening pages of Scripture clearly assert that humanity, both male and female, is created as the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27; 5:1-2). To isolate the image of God to one gender is to misrepresent the biblical view of humanity as God’s image. The imperative commands to “be fruitful,” “multiply,” “fill and subdue the earth,” and “exercise dominion” are grammatically stated in the plural; the text assumes that humanity, both male and female, is given these commands by God.

To reclaim the vision of a Church birthed at Pentecost, we clearly understand that the statement of the husband’s ruling over his wife in Genesis 3:16 cannot be isolated from its context. When this line is lifted from the text to stand alone, it only can lead to gross misinterpretations that are destructive to family, society, and church. Rather than this statement’s referring to the relationship between men and women generally, it obviously is pointing to the relationship between a husband and a wife. For God’s people to apply this text to the role of women in the Church or society is to pervert the text and to mar God’s vision of the kingdom.

Grammatically, this line should be read as a continuation of the preceding line: “Your desire (lust) shall be for your husband.” Read together, these two lines provide a vivid depiction of the manner in which the intimate relationship designed by God has been broken by human sin. While the wife desires (i.e., lusts for) her husband in order to fulfill her blessing to be fruitful and multiply, the husband exercises the power to determine whether she will be able to live out God’s blessing.

Clearly this statement is not the desire of God, nor is it a paradigm for the kingdom of God. In fact, it is just the opposite. God’s design is exclaimed in Genesis 2:23-24: “At last! Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” Here we have no competition for first place and no argument for the “final say.” Rather we have the expression of mutual love and wholeness found as two separate beings are made one flesh.

The domination of one gender over another gender in the home, the society, or the Church is not the will of God. It is the result of the human desire to be like a god carried to its fullest extent in the most intimate of human relationships. Why would the people of God ever settle for the results of sin when God envisions another way of relating for human beings?

No wonder the apostle Paul would speak of marriage in terms of mutual submission and the giving up of life for the other (Ephesians 5:22-33). Having been displayed clearly in Christ, authority and power are not found in claiming one’s rights or exercising raw power over another but rather in letting go of one’s privileged position, serving the other in love, and dying. In the redemptive self-giving of Christ we see the divine pattern for all relationships, beginning with the husband-wife relationship. Clearly stated, God’s intention is to “set God’s creation free from the curse of the Fall. Those who are ‘in Christ’ are new creations. In this redemptive community, no human being is to be regarded as inferior on the basis of social status, race, or gender” (Manual, Church of the Nazarene).

Reclaiming the Vision of Scripture

To reclaim the vision of the Church birthed at Pentecost, we celebrate the manner in which God has consistently called and used women to declare His message throughout scripture. When the Bible describes a woman as carrying out the prophetic role, the situation is never portrayed as unusual. The text simply assumes that women are equally called to the prophetic task of delivering the word of God.

As Miriam led in song following the miraculous crossing of the sea, the text explicitly refers to her role as prophet (Exodus 15:20). Deborah is described as a prophet who carried out the pivotal task of exercising authority by meting out justice. In charging the commander of the army, Barak, she declared, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you . . .” and proceeded to deliver the word of God to Barak (Judges 4:4-6). No one questioned her authority to speak on behalf of God.

When the torah of Moses was found in the temple, the priest Hilkiah along with his associates consulted the prophetess Huldah to receive an answer from God. She responded, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel . . .” (2 Kings 22:14-15). Once again, no one questioned her authority to speak for God. As a result of her inspired word, the people experienced a social and religious transformation.

Taking the prophetic role played by women seriously, the Old Testament refuses to interpret their task in any other way but as articulating God’s message to God’s people. It would seem odd that a God who stands in opposition to speaking His message through a particular gender would actually do so.

The prophetic role of women continued into the early Church. As in the Old Testament, no attempt is ever made to explain these occurrences as unique or exceptional in God’s activity. Anna is described as a prophet who, upon seeing the young Jesus, carried out the prophetic task of speaking about Him “to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38). With no inference made to the uniqueness of the situation, the four daughters of Phillip are said to have “the gift of prophecy” (Acts 21:9).

Although Priscilla is not given the title prophet, she and Aquila take the well-trained and highly-eloquent Apollos aside and explain “the Way of God to him more accurately” (Acts 18:26). Certainly no greater message was ever given by God to human spokespersons than the one given to Mary (John 20:17-18) and the other women at the tomb (Matthew 28:7; Luke 24:9-10) to announce to the disciples the great Christian declaration: “Christ has risen!”

Furthermore, as the diversity of gifts is articulated in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4, no distinction is made regarding gender. The text simply assumes that all gifts are allotted as the Spirit chooses, without any qualification.

Reclaiming a Wholistic Reading of the Bible

As the Church born at Pentecost allows its practices and polity to be informed by the sacred story, it has learned the necessity to read the Bible in its totality. It resists any approach that would utilize an isolated passage in order to implement a permanent practice. The Church has learned to read single texts in light of the totality of Scripture rather than to read the totality of Scripture in light of an isolated passage. The Church knows far too well that lifting isolated texts out of the broader story of God can all too easily lead to self-serving agendas and heresy.

Listening to the fullness of Scripture, the Church also refuses to hide from such texts as 1 Corinthians 14:34-36 and 1 Timothy 2:9-15. However, it also refuses to elevate such texts to a superior position over the rest of Scripture. Rather it seeks to hear and understand such passages in light of the full Scriptural canon and the history of the Church.

As these texts are read in light of the situations which they address, we become aware that they were written to correct abuses regarding the orderliness of worship as these abuses were occurring in the churches. Where such abuses in disorderly worship occur, these texts speak to the Church throughout subsequent generations. As some women in these congregations, perhaps new converts who were not trained in the faith, were interrupting the teachings of authorities in the Church, Paul finds it necessary to instruct them to cease from this practice and to ask questions of their husbands at home.

The admonition to be silent makes no reference to the prophetic task of women. One simply can read Paul’s earlier statement in 1 Corinthians 11:5 in which he assumes that women will prophesy in the Church in order to recognize that Paul is not in opposition to the prophetic role of women. Rather than contradicting himself, Paul addresses in chapter 14 the issue of disruptive outbursts that occur in the midst of worship by persons who raise questions or attempt to instruct while another is prophesying.

Application of Paul’s admonitions to all places at all times would be erroneous. We might compare this situation to a hypothetical one. Suppose I had two students from the state of Alabama who continually talked out during class. Having exhausted my resources, I ask my Provost, “What should I do with them?” In an e-mail he responds, “Tell the students from Alabama never to speak again in public; they should only ask you questions after class in your office.” Hundreds of years later, the e-mail is discovered, and the school makes the pronouncement, “It is written: All students from Alabama are only to ask questions in the professor’s office and are never to speak in class.” Such a conclusion would be a complete misunderstanding of the context and purpose of the original statement.

Acknowledging the unique situation being addressed, the Church must continue to insist that these texts never prohibit a woman to speak on behalf of God. Neither do these texts function as “once-and-for-all” divine proclamations concerning the prophetic task of women. To interpret them in such a way ignores both the context to which they were spoken and the manner in which God consistently has spoken through women to His people. The Church born at Pentecost refuses to compromise the truth of God’s word by isolating texts from the grander story of God and lifting them out of their contexts.

. . . and the Daughters Continued to Prophesy

With the close of the canon, the prophetic voices of women continued to speak the word of God to God’s people. Within just over a century after the ministry of Christ, Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with the Trypho, affirmed that both men and women were among those who had the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit of God as Joel had declared.

To trace the names of the women whose prophetic reputation has survived would provide a virtual Who’s Who among Christian leaders and preachers: in the seventh century, the orations by Hilda of Whitby were heard throughout England; in the fourteenth century, the courageous leadership of Catherine of Siena, serving as the official ambassador of Florence, delivered a word from God directly to the pope Avignon during the crisis of a divided Church; in the eighteenth century, the proclamation of Susanna Wesley continued the preaching ministry of her husband; in the nineteenth century, the declaration and practice of Catherine Booth, co-founder of The Salvation Army, boldly proclaimed the word of God and encouraged other women to do the same.

As the proclamation of holiness spread in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the prophetic voices of women resounded: the bold call to the holy life by Hannah Whitall Smith, the teaching and proclamation of Phoebe Palmer in her Tuesday Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness, the pastoral and prophetic work of Esther Carson Winans in Peru, the revival and camp meeting preaching of Mary Lee Cagle in Texas, the 18-year pulpit ministry of Agnes Diffee not only to a large congregation but to the entire city of Little Rock, and the reigniting of the Wesleyan vision of holiness through the mission, education, and preaching ministry of Mildred Bangs Wynkoop. Beyond these names, how many more unknown names of women are there that have spoken the word of God faithfully to His people throughout the history of the Christian Church?

No doubt, throughout its history, the Church has faced subtle pressures of popular culture and religion to deny the prophetic voice to women. However, faithful women and men alike have dared to respond as John Wesley did to Sarah Crosby when she sensed the call to deliver a word from God and asked Wesley for counsel: “I think you have not gone too far. You could not well do less.”

In this same spirit, when the tide of resistance was rising against the prophetic voice of women in the early twentieth century, C. E. Brown observed that for the Church to close its doors to these prophetic voices of women would be to rob “itself of an incalculable source of strength and influence in the modern world.” He most eloquently declared that “as the church grows more apostolic and more deeply spiritual, women preachers and workers abound in the church; as it grows more worldly and cold, the ministry of women is despised and gradually ceases altogether . . . In the church of Christ there is no room for these ancient forms of prejudice and discrimination” (The Gospel Trumpet, 1939).

Into the Future: The Way of Pentecost

As the body of Christ birthed at Pentecost stands on the threshold of tomorrow, it must continue to boldly affirm the conviction that both our sons and our daughters will be called by God to prophesy. As God calls, the Church born at Pentecost will ordain. Why would a community given birth by the Spirit ever return to lifelessness without the Spirit? Why would the Church ever say “no” to those persons to whom God has said “yes”?

When the Church says “yes” to God’s “yes,” it neither compromises with the ways of the world nor takes the Bible less seriously. In the affirmation of the prophetic role of women, the Church is taking scripture with the utmost seriousness and is refusing to compromise with deeply-engrained social patterns that are contrary to the gospel of Christ.

Moving into the future, clergy and laypersons alike must be well acquainted with the biblical, historical, and theological place of women in ordained ministry. We must be willing to do the good, sometimes difficult, work of serious study of Scripture and history and never settle for clichés and proof texts. Leadership within the Church, both clergy and lay, must be proactive, not merely defending the privilege of women to declare the word of God but actively placing women in such roles where they can faithfully carry out their calling. The Church must never settle for ignorance or misinterpretation of Scripture and must remain on the frontline of teaching its people how to hear Scripture appropriately. It must refuse to be bullied by stubborn minds in our congregations or dominant religious voices in our society that deny women the call to prophesy and to lead God’s people.

Ultimately, the Church born at Pentecost must openly and without shame declare to a world that builds boundaries, borders, and barriers: “In Jesus Christ, the lines have been dissolved!”
For the Church born at Pentecost, there is no option. This is the way of Pentecost: “Your sons and your daughters will prophesy.” No other stance is compatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and with the activity of the Spirit in the life of the Church. To deny the work of God in a woman called by God is to deny the very Spirit at work in her life and in the life of the Church.

Moving into the future, may the Church born and sustained by the activity of the Spirit continue to declare to both our daughters and our sons: “Take thou the authority! Preach the Word! Do the work of an evangelist!”

Dr. Tim Green is Dean of the School of Religion at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tenn.